5/6/2013 This Way Out

"NewsWrap": French lawmakers give final approval to a marriage and adoptions equality bill, but not without violent protests and assaults on police and gay people by its opponents, while the overwhelming rejection by Colombian lawmakers of a marriage equality proposal defies a Constitutional Court order; Rhode Island has all but officially become the 10th U.S. state to open civil marriage to same-gender couples, while a similar measure passes in the Delaware House and heads to the state Senate, where activists predict passage, and the Nevada Senate becomes the first legislative chamber in the U.S. to overturn a constitutional amendment defining marriage as exclusively heterosexual, as SENATOR KELVIN ATKINSON of North Las Vegas comes out during floor debate [with brief excerpts from his remarks]; the U.S. State Department denies permission to leading Cuban LGBT rights advocate Mariela Castro to accept an "ally" award at a civil rights summit in Philadelphia; Singapore gay couple Gary Lim and Kenneth Chee announce their challenge in the Court of Appeal, the highest judicial body in the land, of an April High Court ruling upholding the city-state's sodomy law; Mongolian lawmakers discuss LGBT rights for the first time ever, but some of their comments suggest a long learning curve to liberation; and San Francisco Pride honors whistleblowing gay U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning, then it doesn't (written by GREG GORDON, produced by STEVE PRIDE, and reported this week by SARAH SWEENEY and MICHELLE-MARIE GILKESON)

France's parliament defied months of protests on April 23rd to give final approval to a bill that would make it the 14th country in the world with marriage equality. Increasingly violent opponents of the law, however, vowed to continue the fight. "Al Jazeera's" JACKY ROWLAND reports from PARIS (with brief intro music by THE BEATLES)

Marriage equality is also coming soon to the U.S. state of RHODE ISLAND. Passage of a bill to open civil marriage to same-gender couples passed in the state Senate by a wide margin this week. The state House approved a similar measure in January. SENATOR MARYELLEN GOODWIN had the last word during floor debate on April 24th before the final tally was announced. She told colleagues about what had influenced her vote (with outro music from a live performance of "Married" by ALAN CUMMING)

For 20 years the Kessler Award at City University of New York has recognized a scholar whose body of work has had a significant influence on GLBTQ Studies -- and no one fits that description better than 2012 recipient DR. MARTIN DUBERMAN. His over twenty books include a recent biography of radical historian Howard Zinn, as well as three memoirs and an off-Broadway play. We share an excerpt from Duberman's Kessler lecture, which he titled "ACCEPTANCE AT WHAT PRICE? THE GAY MOVEMENT RECONSIDERED"